Do Disney princesses make me look fat?

 Even little girls of preschool age worry about being fat. But they’re not hung up on being as skinny as a Disney princess.

Those were among the findings of University of Central Florida psychology professor Stacey Tantleff-Dunn and doctoral student Sharon Hayes whose research on little girls and cartoon princesses was recently published in the British Journal of  Developmental Psychology.

Here’s the good news for Disney -- just across Orlando from UCF -- and parents who rely on videos like Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella for some quiet time: “Young girls’ behavior or self-esteem did not appear to be influenced by video clips of the beautiful, thin princesses in animated children’s movies. That’s a sharp contrast to earlier studies showing how the self-esteem of older girls and women suffers after short-term exposure to thin, beautiful models on television and in the movies,” the study found.

UCF’s spokesman said Disney did not fund either the research or the professor’s Laboratory for the Study of Eating, Appearance and Health. But he couldn’t resist putting in a plug for the upcoming Disney animated feature, The Princess and the Frog, saying it will allow parents to start conversations with their kids about image issues. The new film, opening nationwide Dec. 11, has been praised for featuring the first African-American Disney princess.

News flash to kids: Princesses’ tiny waists are not realistic and you don’t need Snow White’s complexion to look good.

Kris Hundley, Times staff writer

Image from Disney's The Princess and the Frog

Plan today for tomorrow

Create a strategy for a healthy Thanksgiving Day. Decide now when you're going to get physical activity tomorrow. Plan to have a healthy breakfast in the morning; you'll be less likely to overeat later. Pledge to put your fork down between bites of food. Limit liquid calories. Serve yourself sides with a teaspoon. Put your plan on paper and keep it in your pocket as a reminder.

Irene Maher, Staff Health Writer

Cancer screening and conflicts of interest

Last week, several Times readers asked about the membership of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the group that came out with the controversial finding that for most women, mammograms can wait until age 50. So we pointed to this site, where you'll see them all listed. By the way, all were appointed during the Bush administration, but they are not political appointees. So it's not fair to blame either the former or current president if you don't like their recommendations.

Now, for another side of the story, check out this article by Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, who my colleague Kris Hundley has quoted in her excellent stories about how the pharmaceutical industry exerts its influence with physicians to get them to prescribe their drugs. Fugh-Berman is an associate professor in the department of physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center, and director of PharmedOut. Her co-writer Alicia M. Bell is the project manager and research assistant for PharmedOut.

The readers who wanted to know about the USPSTF membership theorized they had conflicts of interest that would cause them to recommend fewer mammograms.

Fugh-Berman and Bell point  to another kind of conflict, noting, for instance, that the manufacturers of breast imaging devices and breast biopsy products are faithful donors to groups like the American Cancer Society.

Of course, plenty of people with no such conflicts give to ACS and other cancer charities. But still, this seems worth noting in what is shaping up to be a continuing debate.

Charlotte Sutton, health and medicine editor

Skip day

To help avoid Holiday weight gain, skip all sweet treats today, except whole, fresh fruit. Instead of reaching into the candy jar, have a small apple, then go climb up 3 flights of stairs. Skipping those calories today, will help balance some overeating on Thanksgiving.

Irene Maher, Staff Health Writer

Live chat about women's cancer screening

Join us at noon today for a chat about the new cancer screening guidelines for women. Dr. Jennifer Gilby from Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg will be in the house to answer your questions.

Prevention plan

Prevent Thanksgiving weight gain by eating less at all other meals this week. If you normally have 2 beers after work, have just one, skip fries at lunch, 86 the mayo on your sandwich, pass on second helpings at dinner. Schedule yourself for 30 minutes to one hour of challenging physical activity every day; make it the one appointment you don't break. 

Irene Maher, Staff Health Writer

Let's talk about mammograms and Pap tests

This has been quite a week for women's health. First a prestigious medical panel tells us that for most women, mammograms can be put off until age 50, rather than 40, and can be repeated every-other-year, rather than the annual ritual many of us have been following.

Then another prestigious medical panel says Pap tests, which catch cervical cancer at its earliest stages, can be done every other year until age 30, and every three years after that.

We have a lot of questions about all this, and figure you do, too, and so we've invited Dr. Jennifer Gilby (pictured above), an ob/gyn at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, to join us for a live chat here on the Personal Best blog, Monday at noon.

We'll field your questions about the screening tests, their advantages, their limitations, and how women can catch problems early -- and even better, help to prevent cancer from ever developing in the first place.

So, please join us Monday at noon. If you can't make it, please leave me your questions for Dr. Gilby in the comment area below, and check back later to see the transcript of the chat.

Charlotte Sutton, health and medicine editor

Pears are plentiful

Buy a bagful this weekend to take to work on Monday for snacks or leave out in plain view at home. A medium pear (about 6 ounces) has about 100 calories, plus fiber and potassium. They're great fresh, diced and tossed in a salad, poached in wine, or baked to perfection.

Irene Maher, Staff Health Writer

Quit smoking

It's expensive. It stinks. It's bad for your health. It's bad for your loved ones. It's even bad for pets exposed to passive smoke. Quit or make a plan to quit smoking today during the 34th annual Great American Smokeout. Free help is available through the American Cancer Society.

Irene Maher, Staff Health Writer

New mammogram findings: What's next?

There's been a huge uproar over this week's findings by a government task force that most women don't need to start getting mammograms until age 50.

We've known for a long time that breast cancer -- the No. 2 cancer killer of American women -- is far more common in women over 50, and that screening tests for younger women aren't as accurate, and could mean a lot more exposure to false positives, radiation and anxiety than is warranted by the actual help the test can provide.

St. Petersburg Times reporter Letitia Stein recently reported on the shortcomings of mammograms as a screening tool, including this stunning statistic: You have to screen 1,000 women to save one life.

But this isn't just a scientific issue -- it's also a hot-button political topic. In fact, as this Washington Post story explains, a different panel of medical experts made the same recommendation years ago, but the subsequent political outcry -- including a unanimous vote by the U.S. Senate -- quickly squashed it.

Many opponents of the new recommendations fear that they are based in a desire to save money, although the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force  staunchly denies that cost was a factor in its review of more than 40 scientific studies of mammography. But there's no doubt mammograms are expensive. Sure, we've seen ads for $65 mammograms, but the real cost is significantly higher -- hundreds of dollars. Here's one expert who puts it closer to $1,000, if you count everything, including depreciation on the machines.

So, not surprisingly, a lot of people are saying this is all an effort to help insurance companies save money by not having to cover so many mammograms. This afternoon, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stepped up to the microphone to assure us that nothing's changing in that regard.

“The task force has presented some new evidence for consideration but our policies remain unchanged,” she said. “Indeed, I would be very surprised if any private insurance company changed its mammography coverage decisions as a result of this action.”

Members of Congress already are decrying the new recommendations, with some hinting that they're tantamount to healthcare rationing.

What do you think?

Is the U.S. spending too much money on mammograms at the expense of other health priorities? Is every life saved by mammography so invaluable that it's just wrong to worry about the cost? Are American women getting a false sense of security every time they get their annual mammogram?

Let's talk about it.

Charlotte Sutton, health and medicine editor.

AP Photo of Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., center, flanked by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., left, and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, to discuss the new mammogram guidelines.